Sharing and exchanging ideas on governance and development

Tag: Poverty

A much anticipated report encompassing the new development agenda set to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015 was recently published. This report is the outcome of an interactive process and importantly touches on topical issues. Yet questions arise over how different this development agenda is from the MDGs and whether the targets are relevant within the context of a structural shift in the global economy characterised by a “crisis”-ridden West, an “emerging” East and notably, an Africa “rising”.

The new development agenda unveiled by the High Level Panel (HLP) on post-2015 (PDF) set up by the UN Secretary-General, proposes a more expansive 12 goals with 54 targets compared to the MDGs’ eight goals and 21 indicators. If the HLP report were to be assessed solely on its coherence, then it would score the highest points for the clarity of its overarching agenda devoid of technical jargon.

Crucially, the report outlines five “transformative shifts” which underline the proposed goals, such as economic transformation and inclusive growth, and building peace and effective institutions. These shifts encapsulate issues that have dominated policy makers’, civil societies’ researchers’ and conferences’ agenda recently, from Lagos to London and from Brussels to Brasilia.

As a self-styled “universal agenda” applying to both the industrialised and developing countries, the proposed development agenda has the ambitious aim of “ending poverty by 2030”. Targets on jobs creation and equitable growth, natural resources management, transparency of financial transactions and good governance and effective institutions are relevant not only to the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – the only region that will not meet the MDG Goal 1 of halving poverty by 2015 – but also and perhaps for the first time, austerity-hit parts of the industrialised European Union (EU)!

The most obvious strength of the post-2015 report lies in its ambition as well as the very process that birthed it. From the onset, a consultative approach was undertaken by the HLP involving UN Member states, over 5000 civil society organisations, business enterprises and ordinary citizens around the world. No doubt, this engaging process is greatly facilitated by new media and Web 2.0 tools. For instance, I found out about the My World Survey – which aggregated the priorities of ordinary people for a better world – on Facebook and after I had completed it, I shared it on Twitter. To further buttress how bottom-up this process was, India and Nigeria are the two countries out of 194, with the most respondents to the online survey.

A glaring “deficit” of the report however, is the absence of an explicit goal to address inequality in the proposed development agenda, given how pivotal a factor inequality is to eradicating poverty. In Sub-Saharan Africa where the centre of gravity of global poverty has shifted to since 2000, half of the population lives below the $1.25 poverty benchmark yet the sub-continent has 6 of the 10 fastest growing countries in the world. Billionaires like Aliko Dangote, Isabel Dos Santos and Patrick Motsepe, who top the list of the richest black people in the world, come from some of the richest and most unequal countries in Africa such as Nigeria, Angola and South Africa where more than half their populations live under the poverty line.

Though the HLP report emphasises on the need for “national policy in each country, not global setting” as best suited for tackling rising inequality, a goal explicitly targeting inequality would however be more appropriate because, as the old management maxim states, you cannot manage what you don’t measure. Thus if an explicit goal is not defined and targets are not set on addressing inequality, what incentives do national governments then, have to make the necessary changes in their development plans required to tackle inequality? In Nigeria for instance where rapid economic growth averaging 7.4% in the last decade has been paralleled by sharp regional inequalities between a booming south and a declining north, if a goal on directing policy towards addressing inequality is not included, then how will it the benefits of economic growth be spread more equitably?

Curiously, the post-2015 report glosses over the much-needed reforms of global governance institutions that is, multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and even the UN system itself. These global institutions’ structure, staffing and philosophy skewed in favour of developed countries undermine the bargaining power of developing countries, especially Sub-Saharan Africa.

This asymmetry is especially glaring in global trade, where heavy agriculture subsidies by the US and the EU governments make African agricultural produce uncompetitive in the global market; in the leadership of the World Bank and IMF restricted to the USA and the EU respectively; and in the composition of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council which doesn’t include any African or South American country. A long-held disenchantment with this unbalanced system is driving the growing momentum by emerging powers to lay the ground work for an alternative development bank, the BRICS development Bank, to rival the World Bank and the IMF, for instance.

Certainly, the failure to acknowledge the imperative of addressing such an asymmetric system, at least as one target in the proposed Goal 12 of Creating a Global Enabling Environment, is a potentially missed opportunity by the HLP given the breadth of consultations held, to shore up greater legitimacy and confidence in the UN in the developing world, to show its commitment to a more democratic global governance system.

Despite these shortcomings, the HLP post-2015 report given its depth, scope and focus on global issues of relevance is robust. That it glosses over some key issues like global governance reform, or doesn’t explicitly articulate others like inequality doesn’t detract from the consultative process that led to the outcome which is at least, one significant step towards a universal development agenda.

“Africa is Rising! At Least Its 1% Is” is a piece I wrote for Think Africa Press looking at the growing inequality in Africa despite recent economic success across the continent. Africa’s economy may be booming, but this will do little to help unemployment and poverty if growth is jobless and its spoils are limited to the few.

The article draws on Mo Ibrahim’s recent statements in which he admonished the much-celebrated recent economic ‘success’ of the African continent for largely failing to translate into better human rights and social development, and for essentially creating a few elitist winners at the top whilst the rest are left struggling at the very bottom.

For the first time in my life, I am ashamed of being Hausa-Fulani or rather, at our behaviour. Usually I am one who is extremely proud of my identity: I love the Hausa language, how it flows easily and I relish the slightest opportunity to speak it in the midst of friends and acquaintances of other ethnicities and nationalities; I love the beautiful and colourful cultural attire; I am excessively proud of my richly historical lineage which I can trace back several generations amongst numerous other things, and with all these, I never hesitate to take on, word for word, those whose favourite past time it is to bash “my people”. However, recently, the picture, below had the singular function of nearly reversing this proud, nationalistic, fervour to the point of making me wonder whether some of our more belligerent brothers in other parts of the country who call “Northerners” and “Hausa-Fulanis” “lazy parasites” might actually have a point somewhere.

The picture is a huge sign by popular departmental store Debenhams, here in the United Kingdom (UK), during the annual popular summer sales season, in 2011. Such big, glaring colourful signs are very common of stores in these climes during such sale seasons. On the advert sign, right below the pinkish-fuchsia coloured inscription that says “up to 25% off”, there are inscriptions in three different languages: Mandarin (Chinese), Arabic and Hausa, pretty much saying the same thing. In Hausa, “Sayarwa mai bada ma’ana” loosely means “worth while sales”. Other sales adverts in Hausa have messages such as: “Maraba” which means “welcome”; “Rangwamen 25%” meaning “25% off”; “Farashi ya da daraja” or “great value prices” and “Na gode don sayayyarka a Debenhams” which means “Thank you for shopping at Debenhams“. At face value, it is tempting to think that this is not so bad, and the fact that Hausa appears alongside Chinese and Arabic is some great achievement.

Well, I think not, for reasons which I shall explain below.

First of all, there is something preposterously ironic about any Nigerian language, and Hausa in particular, being included in such adverts in an industrialized country, meant to attract consumer goods shoppers from a developing country grappling with widespread poverty — Walter Rodney must be turning in his grave. Debenhams is one of the most popular departmental stores in the UK, renowned for its high quality, luxury and designer goods: everything from children’s wear, adults’ wear, bags, shoes and other accessories, kitchen ware, bed linen, curtains etc are pricey, top-notch quality stuff. This is in the mould of other high end stores selling luxury goods such as Harrods, Selfridges, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Marks and Spencer etc. The reason why, right after English, inscriptions of sales adverts in these stores are in Arabic, Mandarin and Hausa in a European country, and not in French, German, Dutch or Spanish, is because nationales of these countries are the biggest spenders in such stores.

In recent times with the economic downturn in Europe and the rise of emerging powers such as the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and increasingly South Africa – there is an influx of foreigners with lots of new money to spend, coming to Western capitals, especially the UK to shop. In fact if you go to such stores and malls, the foreigners – the Chinese especially, the Arabs (Qataris, Kuwaitis, Saudis, UAE nationales), Indians, Brazilians, Russians – shopping (not window shopping but actually spending cold hard cash and swiping their debit/credit cards) far outnumber their English or Europeans counterparts, such that you might begin to wonder if you are actually in Europe and in the UK and not in some part of Asia or the Middle East. A report earlier this year, stated that Chinese tourists and shoppers with their huge spending prowess rescued the British retail industry during the Christmas sales season in 2011.

As at last year, Nigerian shoppers were increasingly rivalling and outspending their Chinese, Arab and Russian counterparts. According to a February 2012 report by the London Evening Standard, “in February last year, sales to Nigerians were up 50% in London shops… while overall in 2011, Selfridges says… that Nigerians have been among its top 10 overseas shoppers for the past five years”. The report continues: “on their (Nigerians’) shopping lists (are): suits and formalwear… jewellery, cosmetics and children’s wear; labels include Paul Smith, Gucci, Prada, Chanel and Rolex while Vertu phones (exclusive luxury mobile phones retailing from £1,750 to over £5,500) are a popular purchase.” What is more disturbing is that the average transaction per Nigerian shopper pegged at £1,648 (N420,000) is higher that of the Chinese at £1,310; the United Arab Emirates nationales’ £1,267 and the Brazilians and Russians, both at £988. Only the average spending power of the Saudis (£1,974) and Kuwaitis (£1,780) surpass that of Nigerians.

Now the absurd and utterly ridiculous contradiction here is that with the exception of Nigerians, all these big spenders come from emerging market countries which have some of the world’s fastest economic growth rates, which have lifted record numbers of their citizens out of poverty and which rank high in human development indices. Nigeria comparatively sticks out like a sore and sickly thumb in this elite league of shoppers, ranking low in almost all development indices while our shopping prowess surpasses even that of China – the world’s second largest economy, a manufacturing and exporting colossus billed to surpass the US, by as early as 2016, according to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook. In terms of poverty reduction, according to the World Bank, China lifted about 400 million of people out of absolute poverty in the past few decades, its GDP per capita increased five times since 1981 and the number of extremely poor people fell from 64% to 17%. Brazil has similarly lifted over 40 million people out of poverty in a little over a decade with average household income since 2003 rising by 1.8% per annum and an estimated 33 million people since 2003 have risen to the ranks of the “new middle classes” or above, according to the Financial Times. Did I mention that according to Forbes, Brazil creates 19 new millionaires every day!? It is the same story with the other countries listed here with booming economies, growing middle classes, declining poverty rates and therefore, the huge spending of their citizens is probably justified and well-deserved.

Can we honestly say the same about Nigeria where poverty has on the contrary, according to a Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report, been on the increase from 54.4% (68.7 million people) in 2004 to 69% (112.47 million people) in 2010? According to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) based on indicators such as income, education/literacy and life expectancy, parts of China (Hong Kong no. 13) and the UAE (no. 30) rank in the Very High Human Development category; Saudi Arabia (56), Kuwait (63), Russia (66) and Brazil (84) are in the High Human Development category while Nigeria comparatively ranks a distant 156 in the Low Human Development category, below countries like Kenya and Cameroon, yet our spending prowess surpasses most of the emerging powers listed above.

Secondly and most importantly, my main source of indignation here is that of all the over 250 Nigerian languages that could have been used by Debenhams, it is Hausa language that the store preferred, why? A report by Tom Harper in another issue of the London Evening Standard provides that answer thus: “foreign language signs mainly target rich, short-stay tourists from overseas.” The report quoting Marcus Appleton, a senior Store Manager at Oxford Street, one of the most popular shopping districts in the world says: “We’ve selected the most used signage terms in our stores and translated them accordingly”. Thus, it means the biggest Nigerian spenders are none other than the Hausas! Its gets more interesting and disturbing when you consider that there is a higher proportion of Yorubas (from southern Nigeria) in the UK than there are Hausas. I do not have statistics to work with here, but almost every other Nigerian you come across in the UK is Yoruba: either as a naturalized British citizen, an overseas resident, an asylum seeker, migrant worker, student etc. Of course there are Hausas, Igbos and many other ethnic groups of Nigerian origin in all of these categories, but Hausas are certainly NOT in the majority. In fact there’s a common perception (admittedly more fiction than fact) that in almost every Yoruba household in Nigeria, at least one person is obliged to leave for the UK in pursuit of better education, work or other opportunities, and of course the positive results in the Yoruba society are there for all to see.

Apparently, even with the large numbers of Yorubas in the UK, these high end stores did not use Yoruba instructions but instead opted for Hausa because according to the report cited above: “when deciding which language would appear (on the signs)… stores like Debenhams looked at the highest number of foreign shoppers who claimed their tax back with the store.” So while we have fewer Hausas who come here to study, live, work and engage in productive ventures relative to other Nigerians from other parts of the country, we however surpass everyone including the BRIC countries in extravagant spending on luxury consumer goods. This ordinarily shouldn’t be cause for alarm if we were in the same league with these BRIC countries or at the very least if the development indices in the northern part of Nigeria were the same with that of our southern brethren, but most of us are not showing-off hard-earned wealth.

Now this is precisely the source of my infuriation and grave concern. The northern parts of the country especially the North-West and North-East, where Hausa is predominantly spoken have the highest incidence of poverty compared to other parts of the country as this table shows:

The state with the highest percentage of people living in absolute poverty is Sokoto at 81.2% and the top ranking states (all above 70%) in terms of absolute poverty are in the North East: Adamawa (74.2%), Bauchi (73%), Gombe (74.2%), Yobe (73.8%) and in the North West: Jigawa (74.1%), Katsina (74.5%), Kebbi (72.0%), and Zamfara (70.8%). Only one state in the North-Central Plateau (74.1%) and in the South-South Ebonyi (73.6%) fall within this unenviable exclusive league of poverty. This map below shows the regional distribution more graphically:

We have low literacy rates, high infant and maternal mortality, collapsing healthcare facilities, an army of almajirai roaming the streets, decaying infrastructure in most parts of the north, yet our appetites for luxury goods only seem to expand in correlation with the swelling poverty, underdevelopment, and inequality. Like I stated earlier this year, such consumerist attitude is not backed by any economic prowess on our own part and gradually a needlessly competitive, consumerism culture is replacing the drive for creativity, productivity and entrepreneurship. We have a huge number of Hausa tourists with fat wallets and expensive tastes for the good life, which we buy in record numbers clutching Louis Vuitton bags, wearing Gucci shoes, strapping Rolex, DKNY or the ever popular Guess wristwatches, attired in the colourful Vlisco Hollandaise from Liverpool street, Babanrigas made of the shiniest and starchiest shaddas or suited up in Armani suits and Ralph Lauren polo shirts, with expensive accessories to match, heading back to our impoverished society where we skip the gutters, and the huge mounds of dirt that litter our pot-hole ridden roads into high walled compounds. We see nothing wrong in turning our noses at the beggars that are only but a “nuisance”, the hungry destitute children who roam the streets in their thousands, who go to bed hungry, and if they are lucky to survive the clutches of malaria, tuberculosis, the ritualists’ and traffickers’ den to reach their teens and twenties, the most they can get out of life is to become recharge card sellers, hawkers or maniacal ‘yan achabas (motorcycle drivers) drugged, disillusioned and filled with road rage.

We seem to be blind, oblivious or just nauseatingly nonchalant to how unsustainable this absurd contradiction really is and how the likelihood of it imploding and collapsing on us is ever so imminent. Being mainly adherents of the Islamic faith, we claim to be pious Muslims but there is nothing inherently pious, Islamic or noble in this extravagant, consumerist and unproductive behaviour of wasting wealth while poverty lingers and literally grows in our backyards. By so doing, we are tainting the noble image of Islam which is perhaps compounding our problems because this is not what Allah (SWT) nor the Prophet Muhammad SAW ordained.

We have forgotten that in the first place, wealth bestowed upon the rich is a trust from Allah as this Qur’anic verse indicates:

“Believe in Allah and His Messenger (SAW), and spend of that whereof He has made you (temporary) trustess” Qur’an 57: Al-Hadid verse 7

…and that Allah has enjoined us empower the poor, the needy and the vulnerable:

“They (the wealthy) ask you (O Muhammad (SAW)} what they should spend. Say: “Whatever you spend of good MUST be for parents and kindred and orphans and Al-Masakin (the needy) and the wayfarer, and whatever you do of good deeds, truly, Allah knows it well.” Qur’an 2: Al-Baqarah verse 215

‘On the strength of Al-Mughirah bin Shu’bah(RA): the Prophet(saw) said: “Allah has hated for you: …..to waste the wealth (by extravagance with lack of wisdom and thinking)…”’ Sahih Al-Bukhari, 3/2408.

On a final note, I hope that upon reading this, if you are a Northerner, and you are Hausa-Fulani that you are sufficiently embarrassed, rightfully ashamed, absolutely disgusted and hopefully angry at what we are doing to ourselves. This is not a case of simply blaming bad leadership or blaming our politicians alone, it is our collective burden and responsibility. We are in dire need of massive attitudinal change from a society which has evolved, nay mutated, into a monstrous one, perverting a rich historical, cultural and religious heritage into one which has little regard for the most vulnerable in the society: the poor, the needy, the youth and women. We need to revive our noble values and ideals, the concept of being our brothers keepers, we need to set our priorities right, imbibe same in the youth and younger generation and ultimately salvage a society on the brink of moral, spiritual and socio-economic collapse. The first step is for you, for us all, to feel angry and ashamed, and then we can start discussing the way forward!

P.S.

I noticed some people seem to have misunderstood the whole idea or reason behind the “shame/embarrassment”. I feel ashamed of being Hausa Fulani as I stated, only because of this situation, where we have glaring and increasing poverty vis-a-vis spending prowess that tops global charts. I have no “regrets” whatsoever of my identity, lineage, culture etc. Let me give an example, imagine you are somewhere with a bunch of foreigners and another Nigerian gets arrested for something despicable, what would you feel at that moment? Well that’s the feeling (if only briefly) I am referring to.

Secondly, this is not some self-righteous write-up by someone claiming to be on a higher moral pedestal. Notice the use of “we”, “us” as opposed to “they” and “them”, meaning that I do not at all exonerate myself here. Most people love spending money, shopping and the good things in life, this writer inclusive (and in my spare time, I love going to the mall), what is not normal is our record shopping tendencies vis-a-vis the overwhelming poverty, its just wrong.

Thirdly, so long as you’re not poor (struggling to find food to eat), then I hope you feel guilty (even if its a little pinch) because of the facts presented here. As I stated, it is OUR collective problem, burden and responsibility, unlike situations where we’d normally heap all the blame on “bad leadership” and “politicians” . And more than anything, we are in dire need of attitudinal change.